Page 223 - sense-and-sensibility

gagement.’
‘No engagement!’
‘No, he is not so unworthy as you believe him. He has
broken no faith with me.’
‘But he told you that he loved you.’
‘Yes—no—never absolutely. It was every day implied,
but never professedly declared. Sometimes I thought it had
been—but it never was.’
‘Yet you wrote to him?’—
‘Yes—could that be wrong after all that had passed?—
But I cannot talk.’
Elinor said no more, and turning again to the three
letters which now raised a much stronger curiosity than be-
fore, directly ran over the contents of all. The first, which
was what her sister had sent him on their arrival in town,
was to this effect.
Berkeley Street, January.
‘How surprised you will be, Willoughby, on receiving
this; and I think you will feel something more than sur-
prise, when you know that I am in town. An opportunity of
coming hither, though with Mrs. Jennings, was a tempta-
tion we could not resist. I wish you may receive this in time
to come here to-night, but I will not depend on it. At any
rate I shall expect you to-morrow. For the present, adieu.
‘M.D.’
Her second note, which had been written on the morning
after the dance at the Middletons’, was in these words:—
‘I cannot express my disappointment in having missed
you the day before yesterday, nor my astonishment at not

Sense and Sensibility